Condi’s Jewels

I appreciate the desire to make Condi look like a bitch. Or rather, to expose Condi’s imperious side. But does anyone suspect there’s some crucial context left out of this story?

Coit Blacker, a Stanford professor who is one of thesecretary of state’s closest friends, recalls going into a shop whereRice asked to see earrings. The clerk showed her costume jewelry. Riceasked to see something nicer, prompting the clerk to whisper some sassunder her breath.

Blacker remembers Rice tearing the woman to shreds.

"Let’s get one thing straight," he recalls her saying. "You are behindthe counter because you have to work for minimum wage. I’m on this sideasking to see the good jewelry because I make considerably more."

A manager quickly brought Rice better baubles.

I’m just guessing, but "whispering some sass" seems like code for, "making a racial remark." And while, if the clerk assumed Condi shouldn’t see the real things because she’s black (I’m guessing, though it could also be a range of other issues, including that she’s single), it doesn’t excuse the comment about minimum wage, I have to confess I’ve resorted to some bitchiness when salespeople have assumed I wasn’t worthy of seeing the good stuff because I was a DFH, female, or unmarried (back when I was).

The rash judgments of salespeople is one place where our society’s prejudices remain on ugly display. I wouldn’t be so quick to assume that that’s not what happened here.

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  1. Diane says:

    Saw this story yesterday & thought the goal was to produce sympathy for Condi – too much Pretty Woman imagery. I find it hard to believe that any sales clerk would fail to notice the secret service folks that inevitably have to be hanging about, nor would anyone working retail fail to notice Condi’s appearance, I’m doubting she shops in for jewelry in jeans & a tee.

  2. Diane says:

    Saw this story yesterday & thought the goal was to produce sympathy for Condi – too much Pretty Woman imagery. I find it hard to believe that any sales clerk would fail to notice the secret service folks that inevitably have to be hanging about, nor would anyone working retail fail to notice Condi’s appearance, I’m doubting she shops for jewelry in jeans & a tee.

  3. emptywheel says:

    Diane

    It’s not clear when the story happened–before or after Condi was in government.

  4. dipper says:

    It’s a strange story…why would one of your closest friends want to make you look so mean, even if it’s true?

  5. P J Evans says:

    I’d be willing to bet that sales clerks in jewelry stores make more than minimum wage. If it’s a store with ’good stuff’, they probably make considerably more than minimum. (Also, ’costume jewelry’ can be very nice indeed: think of museum reproductions and Swarovski crystals.)

  6. lysias says:

    Remember how Condi was scolded by a fellow customer in a shoe store in New York City for buying expensive shoes the week of Katrina two years ago, and how Condi had security eject that customer from the store?

  7. lysias says:

    Remember how Condi was scolded by a fellow customer in a shoe store in New York City for buying expensive shoes the week of Katrina two years ago, and how Condi had security eject that customer from the store?

  8. Anonymous says:

    Sleezy’s grin, as I’m sure you remember, is a gap-toothed spectacle of orthodontic malpractice. Perhaps our anonymous salesperson just assumed that if Madame Secretary can’t afford good braces, there is no way she could spring for the fancy stones.

  9. hmbnancy says:

    What precipitated the â€sassâ€? Maybe Condi had an ’tude when she walked into the store because no one recognized her or stumbled over each other to help her first.

    Since we know so little about her, these stories are interesting windows into her character.

  10. Anonymous says:

    DFH=Dirty Fucking Hippy. I believe this is another term coined by Atrios, the Maynard G. Krebs of our time.

  11. Anonymous says:

    Following up on Tekel’s take, perhaps the sassy salesperson thought Rice-a-Phony had the same taste as her beloved Bush, and therefore showed her the crappy stuff.

  12. Anonymous says:

    Does anyone have access to Nicholas Lemann, â€Without a Doubt,†New Yorker, 14 Oct. 2002? Because I have read this story before, and I think that’s where I read it.

  13. William Ockham says:

    I read this the same way ew did. As a middle-aged white male, I rarely see this directly (although I have learned not to accompany my wife when she goes car shopping, car salesmen just can’t seem to believe that I trust her to make her own decisions about cars).

  14. Argonaut says:

    I hold no brief for Condi, and have sworn to myself that if Stanford gives her a job after Bush I’ll be leaving my ginormous fortune to my Lhasa Apso instead. Nevertheless, this [old] story begs at least 20 questions. Speaking as a white male, if I had been insulted by *anyone* as I attempted to buy stuff (an activity, I might say, that the Preznit himself has recommended as supporting the troops), I would have teed off on that person with no holds barred. If I thought that comparing wages would hurt the most, that’s where I would have gone. Yes, Condi is a self-righteous arrogant sanctimonious bitch, but nobody’s perfect. I’m with her on this one.

  15. Anonymous says:

    Just excatly who is Condi Rice again? Oh, isn’t she the Secretray of State? I think…or did they do away with that position.

  16. Anonymous says:

    I’ve gotten the same treatment when I’ve walked into places like Banana Republic in this swank, upscale town near my home looking like a Dirt-Ass, which is the equivalent of DFH in our little punk community. Meanwhile I have a fairly well-paying job and how do they know what I make just b/c I chose to walk out of the house looking like a DA?

    However, I don’t think I’d go into the realm of rudeness that Condi chose. Mostly I just walk out of the store, b/c why would I want to give my money to such rude people… And they don’t care/notice anyway.

  17. emptywheel says:

    WO

    Yup, that’s the place where’s gender prejudices are most on display. I once helped my then-boyfriend buy an SUV–he had never owned a car and I had done all the research on what was best–but the salespeople consistently talked to me only about how many bags of groceries I could stash in the back.

    But since I’m a DFH, I often get treated like shit in public places. Often, for example, when I line up to load in First Class (next to the Congressman), people tell me to get out of the way bc it’s time for First Class to board.

    But I’m white, and I strongly suspect Condi has gotten more of this in her life than I have.

  18. mighty mouse says:

    didn’t Oprah experience something similar in (?) Paris?–it would be interesting to compare and contrast…but I don’t remember the details of Oprah’s confrontation with sassy salespersons…

  19. emptywheel says:

    mighty mouse

    A couple of my dissertation advisors were black. One day, one of them was walking through the main office of her department and a grad student came up to her, handed her a bunch of papers, and said, â€Make copies of these for me, would you.†My advisor was pretty sanguine about it, but I was absolutely appalled.

  20. mighty mouse says:

    ew–truly that is appalling. I just have trouble with Condi’s context here–bling, bling and all that. But I did wonder at the behavior of the salesperson. Who is Coit Black?

  21. mighty mouse says:

    P.S. What I am trying to say is that I have probably never been in the type of retail establishment where Condi had this encounter. But I always sort of assume salespeople don’t need to/shouldn’t be required to be nice because they are paid minimum wage and treated poorly…

  22. Anonymous says:

    The moral of this story might well be that if you don’t want DFH bloggers jumping to conclusions about your behavior, don’t fucking lie you country into an illegal, immoral and unjustified war of aggression. â€Who could have predicted this would happen?â€

  23. Alyx says:

    First of all, I hate her with a passion….she has done nothing in my eyes for this country except for being a pawn for the King. I tried an experiment a long time ago when I was younger about this same subject you folks are talking about. One day after work on a Friday I went into Bullocks and in the Fine Jewelry department, I had no assistance at all. The next Friday, I had dressed in fancy office attire and was waited on immediately…so there is human psychology behavior in this of course. But for Ms. Pawn to state that sentence back to the clerk was unnecessary. If she was so highly educated and up in the mainstream so high, you would think you would have a little better public ettiquette, and said something more like…â€Yes deary, I want some extra fancy baubles for my next Political Ball I attendâ€, and slapped the Prada handbag up on the counter……(sorry knee slapping here…LOL LOL!!!) wink wink

  24. Quebecois says:

    Neocon repug in the middle of class warfare, won’t their just plight ever be fully be realised??? snark off.

  25. Anonymous says:

    EW – I like this thread; it is good therapy. I think once a week, you ought to pick out a high profile administration bozo, relate an offbeat story and let us tee off. It is kind of fun….

  26. William Ockham says:

    Well, since we’re sharing silly stories, I have one of these in reverse. I don’t shop much, but when I do, I usually look pretty scruffy. Of course, I’m usually shopping at Fry’s, so I fit right in.

    On my one and only trip to Las Vegas, my wife wanted me to go window shopping at the mall (or whatever you call that thing they have) at the Venetian where we were staying. So, I threw on my usual shopping outfit (geek T-shirt and blue jeans) and off we went. We went into a bunch of stores that I don’t actually remember, but then I saw a shop that sold kitzy sculptures. We go in and I start looking at this giant (7 foot tall) dragon and my wife wandered off to look at something a bit more sane. In about 30 seconds, this smarmy sales dude shows up and starts putting the hard sell on me for these goofy $10,000+ D & D or sci-fi sculptures. I couldn’t get rid of the dude. He had clearly pegged me as somebody will way more disposable income that I actually have. Finally, I spotted my wife and made a quick exit (for which she was grateful).

    About 30 minutes later, it dawned on me what had happened. The geek T-shirt I had grabbed was one from a Microsoft-sponsored conference that I had spoken at. The back of the shirt just says â€Microsoft Speakerâ€. The guy had assumed I was a Microsoft millionaire.

  27. margaret says:

    Some folks just don’t treat service people with any respect. They have the attitude that, if the person is â€waiting†on them, then, they have to take abuse. It’s a feeling of being in control over someone else, I think, and sometimes, I’ve noticed, perfectly nice people (otherwise) act really ugly to waiters and waitresses and shop personnel. This embarrasses me, tremendously, when it is unwarranted. I’ve even paid the tip to a waiter because the companion I was with was drunk and argumentative over service which wasn’t bad, in the slightest. The â€lording it over†someone who is socially or economically on a lower rung is a symptom of how we look at labor in this country. All work is noble, and deserves our respect. Scott Horton made a comment the other day that Gonzales’ statement that his â€worst day was better than his father’s best day†was arrogant, noting that he shouldn’t speak for his father, who may have been fulfilled in his work, and been grateful for his job. We can’t judge how happy someone is in his job, based on whether we would want that job, minimum wage or not. (And Condi Rice is not a â€nice lady,†as we used to say.)

  28. Neil says:

    I once helped my then-boyfriend buy an SUV–he had never owned a car and I had done all the research on what was best–but the salespeople consistently talked to me only about how many bags of groceries I could stash in the back.
    Posted by: emptywheel | August 30, 2007 at 11:54

    Oh to have EW help evaluate an automobile purchase. Didn’t you do a little consulting work for that industry? Now I’m curious, how many bags of groceries can you fit in an SUV? Come to thnk of it, don’t DFH grow their own food?

  29. greenhouse says:

    Non-story. The clerk asked for a mouth full of verbal and she got it. Pre-Secretary of State or post? We don’t know, the story doesn’t say. Not enuf context. We do know though from Dr. Coit Blacker, (gotta luv that name), that the clerk got sassy. I’m sorry, but you don’t get sassy with customers asking to see better baubles and if you do, expect to get dressed down with the requisite bitch slap. Yeah Condi’s a repug slug but that’s got nothin to do with it. She doesn’t have to take that kinda crap pre-Bush or post. And anyone here who says the proper response would be to just walk away needs to get off their self righteous of so full of shite high horse.

  30. Neil says:


    Sleezy’s grin, as I’m sure you remember, is a gap-toothed spectacle of orthodontic malpractice.

    Posted by: tekel | August 30, 2007 at 11:19

    yekel, you’re killing me.

  31. Alyx says:

    GH…well in one way you are right…the Customer is always right…and business’s want their employees to appeal to the public to get more sales…but to throw in the gals face..I make more money than you so now serve me..is just wrong…so I guess you would have to slap my face…and in good turn I would slap yours…LOL wink wink

  32. Anonymous says:

    Have to ask if it’s at all possible that the clerk was a disgruntled Democrat who recognized Miss Manolo Blahniks on sight and didn’t feel up to waiting on her flea-bitten-if-rich-and-firm ass.

    I’d sure have a tough time waiting on her without giving up some sass, and it would have nothing to do with Condi’s ethnicity — only her ethics.

    (And I concur with the comment upthread about the wages one might earn in an upscale jewelry store; stores with smaller staffs but better quality wares may require their customer service folks to be certified gemologists.]

  33. mo2 says:

    It was very enlightening to go from white to DFH in college. I had never been followed around a store like a suspected thief before I got all earthy. Then it became common. Once I had ridden my bike and thus had a backpack to carry my bike locks. DFHs with backpacks are baaad, I suppose.

    I have worked in customer service (retail and now software support) for 15 years. Condi reacted correctly. And besides – it probably didn’t actually happen – if a repukian said it, it probably is not true.

  34. greenhouse says:

    Alyx, granted the status response is a bit harsh but just fer arguments sake, just supposin that the clerk was white, if you were black, what would you do? There’s the MLK or the X way. Which one is correct? Is it always best to be PC and turn the other cheek or as Malcolm would say â€you all do too much singin. It’s time to do some swinginâ€. Sorry if it sounds like I’m playin the race card but there’s a distinct possibility that it was racial. But, black or white, this issue is not so black and white and I know that if the shoe were on my foot, being human and all, I’d find the snappiest verbal put down I could think of to cause that person mistreating me to stutter.

  35. Flora Legium says:

    A sharp memory from 9/13/01: I had gone to Washington Square to check in on some NYU friends who had seen too much/ were still collecting themselves after 9/11. Passing by the impromptu memorial in the Square (soon to be taken down due to seemingly non-existent threats of rain), my eyes were arrested by a handmade sign with the slogan: â€Resign Condi. Haven’t you done enough?†Though I’ve long distrusted Condi, knowing something of her Stanford days, I continue to be amazed at the prescience of that sign. Wish I knew who wrote it. . . .

  36. mighty mouse says:

    a lot of layers, it would seem, to this onion. Here’s another: is a Secretary of State held to a higher standard when it comes to, um, diplomacy, politesse?

  37. Anonymous says:

    Rayne: Have to ask if it’s at all possible that the clerk was a disgruntled Democrat who recognized Miss Manolo Blahniks on sight and didn’t feel up to waiting on her flea-bitten-if-rich-and-firm ass.

    heh. I’d happily do six months of retail to have the opportunity to tell Miss Oil Tankers â€I’m sorry ma’am, we don’t serve war criminals in this establishment.â€

  38. Anonymous says:

    It just goes to show you that good sales people are as hard to find as weapons of mass destruction.

  39. Alyx says:

    GH, just for arguements sakes…I looked at her Bio…seems she is situated in a well to do neighborhood, if the clerk was in a store in her well to do neighborhood, they are probablly all taught to respect the customer…it may have been no racial slur at all…..I have had many times the clerks at Jewelry counters have a grumpy attitude just because I am bouncing around the jewelry case wanting to see all different sorts of items and pricing them…it could have been the clerk was retorting with this type of grimace or remark? Unless we know the remark of the clerk we cannot really resolve this. Besides…a man was recounting this shopping trip…and you know men hate shopping with women and usually want to get out the shop as soon as possible and head to the nearest hot dog stand…LOL wink

  40. Anonymous says:

    Neil, that is an excellent question. The NY Times should get a reporter down to Fifth Avenue to track her down and see.

  41. Anonymous says:

    Here’s some info on Blacker from his page at Stanford . Note he also turns with the aspens.

    Coit Blacker is director and senior fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies: the Olivier Nomellini Family University Fellow in Undergraduate Education: and professor of political science, by courtesy.

    During the first Clinton administration, Professor Blacker served as special assistant to
    the president for National Security Affairs and Senior Director for Russian, Ukrainian and Eurasian Affairs at the National Security Council (NSC). At the NSC, he oversaw the implementation of U.S. policy toward Russia and the New Independent States, while also serving as principal staff assistant to the president and the National Security Advisor on matters relating to the former Soviet Union.

    From 1998 to 2003, he served as co-director of the Aspen Institute’s U.S.-Russia Dialogue, which twice each year brings together prominent U.S. and Russian specialists on foreign and defense policy for discussion and review of critical issues in U.S.-Russian relations. He was a study group member of the U.S. Commission on National Security in the 21st Century (The Hart-Rudman Commission) throughout the Commission’s tenure.

  42. greenhouse says:

    Sleezy’s grin, as I’m sure you remember, is a gap-toothed spectacle of orthodontic malpractice.
    Posted by: tekel | August 30, 2007 at 11:19

    Damn tekel, is that what the clerk said to her?

  43. Anonymous says:

    Bionic – That all sounds really fancy. So what is it that is of actual useful value that this cluck Coit actually does, and how much of it is â€by courtesyâ€?

  44. Jodi says:

    To much reading of vast worldly concerns into a chance meeting with a clerk in a store.

    The clerk may have been having a bad day, may have been disgruntled at her management, may have had a hang over.
    She may have said (either by misjudgement, or kneejerk reaction to someone asking her to make a little more effort and work harder) â€you won’t be able to afford them either.†No one has said what she said, so to presume that Condi’s answer was in the wrong vein, is rather foolish.

    Why all this philosophizing over something you know next to nothing about?

  45. Anonymous says:

    Jodi – It is fun. Besides, â€philosophizing over something you know next to nothing about†has never stopped you, now has it?

  46. Alyx says:

    Jodi…I think Greenhouse and I performed a marvelous â€Siskel and Ebert†on the matter…case is now closed. LOL tongue in cheek and a wink wink

  47. section9 says:

    What really happened has turned into something very revealing about modern liberals.

    The story goes like this: Condi was looking for the real jewelry in the jewelry store. The clerk kept showing her the costume jewelry, because Rice is black. When Rice insisted on seeing the real jewelry, the clerk uttered a racist remark, believed to be â€black trashâ€, under her breath. That’s when Rice went off on the clerk.

    This occurred in Stanford in the Nineties, when Condi wasn’t well known, so there was no Chimpy McBushhitler connection. You all have no excuse here.

    Liberals have been assuming the worst about Rice and the best about the racist clerk all dadgum day. It’s quite revealing about you all. You’re quite willing to excuse, nay, cheerlead in some case, petit racism on the part of a store clerk because of the political party affiliation of a black woman who you do not like. I suspect that were Condi a liberal, you all would have assumed that the store clerk was a Freeper. Now, in your eyes, she has become a heroic, put-upon Kos Kid.

    Situational ethics is not only not healthy, it leads to justifiable charges of hypocrisy. Yet this is what I have been reading from liberals on this story for the past 48 hours.

  48. Anonymous says:

    Section 8 Troll – You continue to mistype your numerical designator. It is Section 8 for crazy twits like you. You were properly dispatched long ago at Washington Monthly; begone from here. If you had truly read the comments here, you would have seen that as to any possible racial aspects, Ms. Rice was supported. The rest was just fun. You, however, are not fun, nor particularly relevant to any intellectual conversation. You are a troll.

  49. Alyx says:

    I second your remark bmaz! We exploited all possibilities here and also came to the conclusion we could not judge until we heard the other side of the story…are you just hurt that we just plain ’don’t like’ your Lady Cub Scout leader?

  50. emptywheel says:

    section 9

    Perhaps you didn’t read the post. You know–the one where I guessed that it was a racial slur and that’s why Condi went off?

  51. Anonymous says:

    This story makes even me slightly sympathetic to Condi. I’m such a DFH that store detectives invariably follow me around — and I’m a 60ish white woman.

    Only slightly though — that woman was advertised as having a brain, but shows no smidgen of one, nor of any sense.

  52. Argonaut says:

    Greenhouse said, â€What really happened has turned into something very revealing about modern liberals.†Well, lessee, there are 12 comments overtly supporting Condi. I made one of them. I’m a modern liberal. Thanks for your insight.

    Now, what happens to this story if Coit is wrong about what he thought the clerk said (â€Sassâ€)? What if, as a friend, he is trying to preemptively cover up a Condi Meltdown? We don’t know nearly enough about this, and never will. Condi has enough baggage anyway. Move along. Nothing to see here.

  53. Argonaut says:

    Oops – sorry Greenhouse. I can’t get used to the signature being separated from the comment by a line.

  54. mighty mouse says:

    This topic has been so troubling to me, and after much pondering, I think I know why. If I think about this incident, I go a little postal about Rice’s minimum wage remarks. But this incident is part of the larger narrative of the Bush administration. Because I resist the occupation of Iraq, this administration calls me a coward, a traitor, and a cut and runner. If I bitch about NCLB (and boy, do I), I am back-pedalling on the education of America’s children. If John Kerry is to be attacked for his service during the Vietnam conflict and Bush applauded–you see where I’m going. So when I read that the Secretary of State berates a salesclerk because that person is a peon earning minimum wage, I have a somewhat, um, visceral reaction. The only think that is clear in this anecdote is Rice’s minimum wage snipes. The rest, as Argonaut points out, we really don’t know. But in the larger context of this administration–which regards me as a coward and a traitor–I do not react well to something like this. And all praise be to EW for noting the possible racist aspects to this story. But after years of Bushco, when I think of equality, I think of Alberto Gonzales parlaying his personal history, and it all goes kablooey for me.

  55. eyesonthestreet says:

    and let us not forget, Tony Snow is leaving because he is not paid enough……..

    (curious how Bush kept the cancer alive in the press conference, gee tony messed up that too)